Working Paper: NBER ID: w16873
Authors: Patricia M. Anderson; Kristin F. Butcher; Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach
Abstract: This paper investigates how accountability pressures under No Child Left Behind (NCLB) may affect children's rate of overweight. Schools facing increased pressures to produce academic outcomes may reallocate their efforts in ways that have unintended consequences for children's health. For example, schools may cut back on recess and physical education in favor of increasing time on tested subjects. To examine the impact of school accountability programs, we create a unique panel data set of schools in Arkansas that allows us to test the impact of NCLB rules on students' weight outcomes. Our main approach is to consider schools to be facing increased pressures if they are on the margin of passing - that is, if any subgroup at the school has a passing rate that is close to the AYP passing threshold, where we define close as being 5 percentage points above or below the threshold. We find evidence of small effects of accountability pressures on the percent of students at a school that are overweight. A follow-up survey of school principals points to reductions in physical activity and worsening of the food environment as potential mechanisms.
Keywords: No Child Left Behind; child obesity; accountability; education policy
JEL Codes: I18; I21
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| accountability pressures (H83) | changes in school policies (I28) |
| changes in school policies (I28) | increased obesity rates (I14) |
| accountability pressures (H83) | higher rate of overweight students (I24) |
| larger gains in proficiency rates (I24) | higher rates of overweight (I14) |